Tenth edition? I’m 6 editions behind.
I gather there’s different size space marines?
Seems weird to advance the timeline that much …
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I think 3rd and 4th was mostly what I played. I might have played some games of 5th?
And given that most/all of the 40k Black Library books I’ve read in the “recent” past have been set in the Horus Heresy I can confidently state I have no idea what’s going on with the current lore. But the models still look very pretty (and very expensive).
I gather the Emperor is stirring, Cadia might have exploded and some Primarchs are back.
Last year I started building and painting an army for 9th edition.i was shocked by how naked the change the rules all the time to make the new stuff just better so you need new armies to win games. It’s so uninteresting to play, still has a big issue of lists winning more than good play.
It really killed any lingering enthusiasm I had for the system. 2nd and 5th remain the best 2 iterations. A big issue it has is GW have a new strategy of more new stuff all the time to get novelty sales. They do have easily the best tech for production though so their minis are the highest quality out there by a long shot, this isn’t a comment on aesthetics which is very subjective. Personally I really like how the new big space marines look. So I still paint space marines because it’s fun and inspiring to me with how great those minis are. The background story now means nothing to me but the primarchs coming back leaves me incredibly ambivalent.
Only 6? I’m 9 editions behind. Surely the basic rules can’t have changed that much since '87 or so?
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There’s a lot of changes from Rogue trader to even third edition. No more d100s, a completely different psychic powers system. Plus my impression is that it keeps on taking itself more seriously for some reason.
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I think it’s like Judge Dredd. You can be as obvious as you like about parodying fascism, but a bunch of kids are still going to say “woo, cool uniforms, and everyone has to do what I want”.
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Mainly because the game is simply a vehicle to shift more miniatures. So they change/develop the lore frequently so they can sell more plastic crack.
Have you checked out One Page Rules? They make rules that you can use any minis with including their own version of 40k called Grimdark Future. I haven’t played that one but the Age of Sigmar equivalent (Age of Fantasy) is really good. They have modernized and streamlined the rules so games don’t take quite as long. They use alternating activations so you don’t have to wait 15 mins in between doing things. And you can try it out for free, the base rules and the army/faction rules are free. It will take a bit of sleuthing to figure out which units match which Stateline because they had to avoid copyright (ie Battle brothers for space marines) but once you have that your set. Though if you find the base rules a little too simplified the full rulebook includes a bunch of optional rule system to add back on, it’s like $5 online though so not bad at all.
P.S. I can’t remember if I’ve evangelized One Page Rules on here before so sorry if I have, I was just blown away by their system.
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Xenos Rampant is another recently released miniature agnostic sci-fi game that might be worth investigating. Or there’s Mantic Game’s offerings - Deadzone & Firefight (skirmish and 40K sized games respectively). Again, miniature agnostic, although they do have their own range for the games.
One Page Rules is free to download, so if definitely worth a look.
Given how different the Warhammer Fantasy / Old World editions were between 3rd and 8th, I wouldn’t be surprised if 40k is basically unrecognisable now. (We do not talk about the existence of the utter nonsense that is Age of Sigmar, lalala).
While it’s a stretch to use Warhammer in the name it’s been a great move for them. They sell so much more if their fantasy miniatures now. It was nearly dead in the last warhammer edition and had been dying off sales wise for years previous. I’m not saying you should like it but it was the right decision from the popularity/sales perspective.
@Scribbs @MitchtheDM I’ve stayed very sceptical of miniature agnostic systems for a long time. Mid 00s a tried a few and they were all beyond bad. I also hated Frostgrave so I’m still a bit. I’ll check out One Page Rules but we’ll see. Maybe it will overcome my prejudices
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Oh, not doubting that. They’re bigger than ever and the fantasy part of it was almost zero by end of (8th ed?). I just don’t think I recognise it as the same/ remotely similar game, and have decided to file it in my brain alongside the Star Wars prequels 
When they bring wood elves back in Old WH I’ll collect a big army. And Skaven, but with the Old WH rules, not AoS. It’s just not for me.
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Oh also Squats are back?
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I’ve run 40k rpg sessions for friends a number of times. Each time the initial encounter is a planet being threatened by an uprising of the heresy of “democracy” and everyone gets to have good fun dealing with the tactical problem of barricades defended by weird space versions of Enjorlas, Marius, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, FDR, Dwight Eisenhower, Lafayette, and both recent local mayoral candidates.
Marius is always hit with a flamer.
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Yeah but in no way like the old squats, which is a great shame!
Wait, what? I’m not sure I want to know what new squats are like. The old squats were basically space dwarf bikers living in mobile mining cities, right?
Yeah, they ditched that biker look for something more hi-tech. If you’ve played Starcraft, there’s a passing resemblance to the Terran marines in their armour design.
They are basically short bearded Space Marines now